Power Through Repose eBook

In so far as we are truly the friend of one, whether
he be baby, child, or grown man,—­shall
we be truly the friend of all; in so far as we are
truly the friend of all, shall we be truly the friend
of every one; and, as we find the living peace of
this principle, and a greater freedom from selfishness,—­whether
of affection or dislike,—­those who truly
belong to us will gravitate to our sides, and we shall
gravitate to theirs. Each one of us will understand
his own relation to the rest,—­whether remote
or close,—­for in that quiet light it will
be seen to rest on intelligible law, which only the
fog and confusion of selfishness concealed.

XIX.

THE USE OF THE WILL

IT is not generally recognized that the will can be
trained, little by little, by as steadily normal a
process as the training of a muscle, and that such
training must be through regular daily exercise, and
as slow in its effects as the training of a muscle
is slow. Perhaps we are unconsciously following,
as a race, the law that Froebel has given for the
beginnings of individual education, which bids us
lead from the “outer to the inner,” from
the known to the unknown. There is so much more
to be done to make methods of muscular training perfect,
that we have not yet come to appreciate the necessity
for a systematic training of the will. Every
individual, however, who recognizes the need of such
training and works accordingly, is doing his part
to hasten a more intelligent use of the will by humanity
in general.

When muscles are trained abnormally their development
weakens, instead of strengthening, the whole system.
Great muscular strength is often deceptive in the
appearance of power that it gives; it often effectually
hides, under a strong exterior, a process of degeneration
which is going on within, and it is not uncommon for
an athlete to die of heart disease or pulmonary consumption.

This is exactly analogous to the frequently deceptive
appearance of great strength of will. The will
is trained abnormally when it is used only in the
direction of personal desire, and the undermining
effect upon the character in this case is worse than
the weakening result upon the body in the case of
abnormal muscular development. A person who is
persistently strong in having his own way may be found
inconsistently weak when he is thwarted in his own
way. This weakness is seldom evident to the general
public, because a man with a strong will to accomplish
his own ends is quick to detect and hide any appearance
of weakness, when he knows that it will interfere
with whatever he means to do. The weakness, however,
is none the less certainly there, and is often oppressively
evident to those from whom he feels that he has nothing
to gain.

When the will is truly trained to its best strength,
it is trained to obey; not to obey persons or arbitrary
ideas, but to obey laws of life which are as fixed
and true in their orderly power, as the natural laws
which keep the suns and planets in their appointed
spheres. There is no one who, after a little serious
reflection, may not be quite certain of two or three
fixed laws, and as we obey the laws we know, we find
that we discover more.